By This month we've been discussing the importance of measuring manufacturing ROI and how to get a "whole picture" KPI assessment of your marketing returns to guide your strategies and spending. Now, it's time for actionable tips to evaluate your B2B marketing proficiencies and deliver the kind of ROI to C-suite expects.
1. Have a Plan & Execute It
Be the one with a plan. ROI doesn't go up without deliberate action. It will certainly slip without monitoring and applying a strategic plan. Write it down and outline your marketing campaigns, content, lead magnets several months in advance. Consider how you'll increase awareness, engagement, leads, and quality SQL hand-offs over time. And know how you'll measure ROI.
2. Start Early with the Team
Discuss this strategy in detail with your team at least one month in advance and take broader strokes when discussing the plan further out.
Develop an outline that highlights: "This is what we're doing, why we're doing it, and how we're going to do it."
Too often, front-line marketers get caught up in day-to-day work. They struggle to see the big picture. This limits creativity and can impact job satisfaction. When the team sees where this is going, they feel a sense of direction and belonging that unifies the team and makes them stronger.
3. Have a Back-Up
Every good strategy has a contingency. While you need a plan and should work it, leave room for adjustment and adaptation. Something totally unexpected can come up. And it may be a great opportunity you need to capitalize on or a PR disaster.
Even though you have no idea what that something might be, have a plan to shift gears, discuss this with key team members, and know how you'll measure the ROI of that pivot.
4. Treat Suppliers Like Friends and Family
Be good to the third parties who make what you do possible. In marketing, you don't have control over paying vendors on time or maintaining good logistical communication. But you can impact marketing ROI in other ways by strengthening these partnerships.
Look for opportunities to highlight each companies' contributions through inbound marketing content. Discover ways to collaborate on marketing campaigns and showcase the work you do together to deliver to B2B customers. Follow their social media and share when relevant to your customers. Usually, you can find an angle.
5. Maximize Content Reach
Every piece of content you create for social media, inbound marketing, email, troubleshooting manuals is an asset to your company. Get the most out of it.
- Turn it into a video, infographic, or email.
- Tweak marketing content to support sales during closing (sales enablement content).
- Convert a training manual into a blog series.
- Rewrite a successful blog post as a guest post for a supplier website (and get a valuable link back to your site).
On the surface, this may seem like extra work. But instead, you're developing a lot of helpful, effective content for less money than it would take to create the same number of unrelated pieces.
You're building topical relevance that encourages B2B manufacturing customers to consume multiple pieces of content. They're more likely to convert. You're reaching your audience in the places they associate. You're building a magnetic online presence for less. All of that translates to a better understanding of your customers and your returns and a higher manufacturing ROI.
Inbound marketing delivers the marketing ROI thanks to this focus on maximizing marketing assets.
6. Get a Reliable CRM
You need a complete view of the buyer's journey. To achieve that, it helps to have a customer management system that can track people through the steps they take from becoming a lead to a 5-star review writing customer.
A modern CRM like HubSpot incorporates lead-scoring technology that identifies how far along each lead is. When that MQL becomes a SQL, this martech can automatically hand off that leads to sales. That's perfect timing you will not achieve by trying to manage contacts manually. It represents key ROI data you would not have otherwise.
7. More Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing and B2B go hand in hand. Business buyers do significant research online before choosing a manufacturing company. They explore your online presence and how others interact with your brand (social media engagement, reviews, industry leaders, etc.).
Once they become customers, they will continue to see your manufacturing company as a reliable source of information. They will continue to engage with companies who've invested in inbound marketing, increasing loyalty and lifetime value.
